This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
Carrier Aggregation (CA) is a key feature of 3GPP LTE-Advanced. By using carrier aggregation, users may gain access to a total bandwidth of up to 100 MHz in order to meet IMT-Advanced requirements. The system bandwidth may be contiguous or composed of several non-contiguous bandwidths, which are aggregated. Also, with CA, a user equipment (UE) may be served by two or more cells, where one of the cells acts as a primary serving cell, while the other cells act as secondary serving cells.
The implementation of carrier aggregation involves changes to the L2 (modem) of eNodeBs to support the carrier aggregation, UE-eNodeB wireless interface. The primary aspects of the CA feature are implemented in the UEs and eNodeBs. In order to support CA, a UE must be a Category 3 UE or greater, and the eNodeB must be configured for CA. If a user brings a Category 3 UE, or higher, to a network and the involved eNodeB supports CA, the user will be able to enjoy the advantages of CA service, provided radio conditions make the call eligible for CA.
While this situation may seem desirable, it may create problems for the network operator. For example, the operator may wish to control access to the CA feature for business reasons or network management reasons, such as network loading control, etc. Thus, new solutions and techniques that enable greater control over access to the carrier aggregation feature would meet a need and advance wireless communications generally.
Specific embodiments of the present invention are disclosed below with reference to FIGS. 1-4. Both the description and the illustrations have been drafted with the intent to enhance understanding. For example, the dimensions of some of the figure elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements, and well-known elements that are beneficial or even necessary to a commercially successful implementation may not be depicted so that a less obstructed and a more clear presentation of embodiments may be achieved. In addition, although the logic flow diagrams above are described and shown with reference to specific steps performed in a specific order, some of these steps may be omitted or some of these steps may be combined, sub-divided, or reordered without departing from the scope of the claims. Thus, unless specifically indicated, the order and grouping of steps is not a limitation of other embodiments that may lie within the scope of the claims.
Simplicity and clarity in both illustration and description are sought to effectively enable a person of skill in the art to make, use, and best practice the present invention in view of what is already known in the art. One of skill in the art will appreciate that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific embodiments described below without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the specification and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative and exemplary rather than restrictive or all-encompassing, and all such modifications to the specific embodiments described below are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.